President Trump said Canada’s announcement it will recognize a Palestinian state “will make it very hard” for the U.S. to reach a trade agreement.

After Canada failed to strike a trade deal with Washington, the president raised tariffs on some Canadian exports this week.

They claim that the country’s overall trade deficit — the sum of the U.S. trade balance with all countries — represents economic weakness and a national-security threat. But what can bilateral trade deficits and the country’s overall trade deficit tell us about trading relations and the health of the U.S. economy? Here are some facts: